10 Tips on How to Use Natural Progesterone Cream

Many women are anxious to know how to use natural progesterone cream correctly. The answers to these 10 most frequently asked questions will remove any confusion and help you get the best results when using progesterone therapy.

These 10 pieces of advice will help stabilize your progesterone levels and deal with unpleasant symptoms.

1. Where to apply natural progesterone cream?

Choose an area where there are lots of capillaries that are close to the surface of the skin. Absorption is best on skin sites where people blush: face, neck, chest, breasts, inner arms and palms of the hands. The progesterone cream will be quickly absorbed and start circulating in the bloodstream. Avoid putting the cream on the fattiest areas of the body, as this may inhibit absorption as the fat areas will store the progesterone. Moreover rotate the sites where you apply the cream each time you use it to avoid saturation.

2. How often should I use progesterone cream?

Split dosage and apply the cream once in the morning and once in the evening before bed. Using it before bedtime may help some people to sleep better. Splitting the dosage up ensures 8-12 hours of sustained delivery. If you apply it all at one time, only once a day, it will still only last 8-12 hours, leaving the other 12 hours where you are not receiving any. The split dosage ensures optimum progesterone levels are maintained.

3. Why do I feel worse when using natural progesterone cream?

When using progesterone cream for the 1st time after a long period of progesterone deficiency, the estrogen receptor sites will be stimulated, for a short period of time. This might increase the estrogen dominance symptoms such as breast tenderness and swelling, spotting, fluid retention, dizziness, hot flashes, fatigue, headaches and nausea. It can be annoying, but be re-assured that it will go away over the next couple of cycles, as progesterone levels increase.

4. What is the recommended progesterone cream dosage?

As far as the dose is concerned, it really depends on symptoms. It doesn’t depend on weight, age, height. It does depend a bit on sex because a man doesn’t need as much. Most women are advised to use 20 to 40 milligrams a day to use but we would say to use 100mg to 200mg or more according to the intensity of the symptoms.

5. What time of the month should I apply progesterone cream?

All women, irrespective of the length of their cycle, should start ovulating 14 days before they start bleeding again. This means that you should start using the cream at ovulation, if you know when that is, or 14 days before your next period is due to. If you don’t ovulate or have a period, stick to the 28-day cycle, choosing any day to start.
A 21-day cycle – ovulation should occur on day 7
A 28-day cycle – ovulation should occur on day 14
A 36-day cycle – Ovulation should occur on day 21
Most websites and books advise starting the cream on day 14, this is entirely incorrect! The cream should only be used from ovulation, for the last 14 days of the cycle

6. Can I use the cream continuously?

If somebody is pre-menopausal, i.e. they got a regular cycle, but are having horrific symptoms, I tell them to ignore the cycle. So in other words, they would use the cream every day and through their period as well for two to three months. Sometimes they require longer, sometimes shorter but it doesn’t harm to use it through the cycle. It gives progesterone a chance to become dominant. If you take a break, estrogen can rise so you’re back to square one every time you start the progesterone. Your period will sort itself out again once you start following the cycle

7. How much Progesterone cream to use?

All the successful studies done on progesterone indicate between 100-200mg should be used each day. This equates to 3-6ml of a 3.33% concentration cream (such as Natpro) per day. Some studies are used 400-600mg/day. As much as 1200mg per day is used on patients suffering Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The late Dr Catherine Dalton used to give her patients suffering from psychosis 2400mg per day and 800mg for nausea.

8. Which Progesterone Cream should I buy?

Not all creams are created equals and there are 3 essentials to look for when buying a Progesterone Cream: Are the ingredients safe? Is the Progesterone well absorbed? What is a number of active ingredients in the cream? Look for Natural Preservatives instead of synthetic one and make sure you are not paying for the price of a fancy container but rather for the amount of progesterone in the cream.

9. When to stop using natural progesterone cream if pregnant?

If you are trying to get pregnant while using natural progesterone cream, continue using the cream until you are sure that you are not pregnant. If you get a positive pregnancy test result, continue on with the progesterone cream. Be sure not to skip a day of use of NPC in pregnancy. Doing so may result in a sudden drop of progesterone levels, which may cause miscarriage. Have two bottles on hand at all times to ensure you don’t run out.

10. How to Reduce the amount of cream?

Reduce the amount ONLY when you feel stable enough to do so. It is vital to do it SLOWLY – if done too quickly your symptoms will come back . If it happens, just increase the amount of cream until you feel stable again and then slowly try again reducing. This should be done over a few weeks to prevent unpleasant symptoms returning. Do not reduce by more than 16-20mg at a time. Stay on the reduced amount for a few days before reducing again. Continue reducing until you find a level that suits you. Symptoms will return if you reduce by too much and too quickly. Never reduce to less than 100mg/3ml per day as all adverse symptoms will return.